Source: Colorado finalizing 2011 move

Attorneys at the University of Colorado are finalizing a deal to allow the school to begin playing Pac-10 football next season, a school source told ESPN's Joe Schad on Tuesday.

The University of Colorado Board of Regents has a meeting scheduled for Tuesday night. Colorado and Utah, of the Mountain West, announced earlier this year that they are joining the Pac-10.

The exact departure date for Colorado was not known in June, when Colorado decided it would leave the Big 12. But Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott said earlier this month he expected the Buffaloes to join in 2012.

The regents unanimously approved Colorado's move to the Pac-10 in June.

"[I] can't confirm it, [our] lawyers still working on it with the conference," Colorado spokesman David Plati said Tuesday. "[We're] hopeful resolution one way or the other will be finalized very soon."

Nebraska also is leaving the Big 12 -- for the Big Ten.

On Sept. 11, Scott said Colorado officials told him negotiations with the Big 12 about a buyout for leaving a year early were ongoing.

"The chances are worse than 50-50," Scott said. "I don't know how to rank it beyond that. At this stage, we're planning for them to come in 2012."

Orangebloods.com reported Tuesday that the 10 schools that will remain in the Big 12 have voted on contingent football schedules for 2011 -- some including the departing schools, some not. The consensus, the website reported, is to let Colorado leave before next season.

The Big 12 is expected to announce its scheduling decision Sept. 28-29, when the conference's member administrators meet in Dallas, according to the report.

"There is too much consensus to get Colorado on its way to the Pac-10," an administrator at a Big 12 school told Orangebloods.com. "That's what Colorado and the Pac-10 want. That's what the Big 12 wants."

The sticking point has been money. By leaving the Big 12 with just one season of notice, Colorado would owe an 80 percent forfeiture of revenues in a two-year period, Orangebloods.com reported.

The website said the Big 12 was looking at ways to spread out those payments, which would allow Colorado to leave after the current school year.

Utah already is set to join the Pac-10 next season.

Earlier this month, Scott said officials were finalizing an 11-team football schedule if Colorado does not join next season, as well as a 12-team schedule for 2012 that could be implemented next season if necessary.

Scott hopes to have a resolution on Colorado's fate, as well as an agreement on a division split for football when the conference goes to 12 teams, and a new revenue-sharing model by the end of next month. The board of directors could vote on these issues at a meeting Oct. 21.

ESPN college football reporter Joe Schad, ESPN.com Pac-10 reporter Ted Miller and ESPN.com Big 12 reporter David Ubben contributed to this report. Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.